RTI ACT :: Meeting with President

As a followup to the letters/emails/petitions to the President from
across the country and world, Demonstration at Vigyan Bhawan and then
assurance by the President to meet and hear the aggrieved(with the
functioning of CIC ) citizens, we met the President this afternoon .
We appealed to him to intervene in the functioning of the Information
Commission,which has made a mockery of the Right to Information Act in
its very first year.

Initially we briefed him about the RTI Act and the ray of hope it
awakened in the common man. The President was also apprised of the
functioning of CIC where 

- an appellant is often not called for hearing. Appeals are 'disposed
off' without an appellant being heard.

- The officers, who are violating the RTI Act by not giving
information,have not even once been penalized as per the provision of
the Act, by the CIC.

- As a result, the rate of pendency of appeals is rapidly increasing.

- Public Information Officers feel fearless and challenge the
information applicants by not complying with providing information.

- In its hearings the Commissioners do not treat the citizen at power
with public authorities. Hearings are rescheduled if the public
authorities want it. If an appellant is a few minutes late the hearing
is dismissed.

- Appeals made by students for transparency in the examination system
are dismissed on the dubious ground that transparency in the
examination system could adversely affect the integrity of the system.

The President gave a serious hearing to the difficulties. During the
half an hour meeting He took personal notes on separate note sheets to
all the points that were discussed. The best part of it was that it was
not a one sided meeting, he discussed at almost every point and after
understanding our viewpoint he proceeded to next point. This was a good
sign.

Finally we requested him to institute and independent enquiry Under
Section 14 of the RTI Act, We said that  "He holds the balance between
the State authorities and the common citizen who have no means other
than the RTI Act, to seek justice from a system, which asks for bribes at
every step. If the Act is not given a chance to be put into practice
and if the custodians of the Act, the CIC throttles the Act then
intervention by the President alone is the hope of the common man."

The President said that he'll go into all the details provided by us
and then assured us that he'll do the needful.

Manish Sisodia
09868875898
--------------------------------
I am sendig the appeal also, which we submitted to the President.
---------------------------------

An Appeal to the President of India Shri A P J Abdul Kalam
by the citizens of India – the users of the Right to Information Act
2005.

Dated: 25.10.'06
The President of India, Shri APJ Abdul Kalam
Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi

Respected President,

We the citizens of India and the users of the RTI Act 2005 are greatly
concerned about the functioning of the Central Information Commission
and the State Information Commissions. The National RTI Act 2005 came
into effect a year ago. Several states including Delhi had similar Acts
in force for the last 4 to 5 years. During this period, a large number
of under-privileged people began to see a ray of hope because they were
able to get their food rations regularly as a result of using the Act.
About 200 poor children in resettlement colonies of east Delhi were
able to get admission in proper schools. People began to get their work
done without having to pay bribes.  Some of these cases are mentioned in
an enclosure to this letter.

A great deal of hope was generated when a nation wide campaign was
launched to create awareness about the RTI Act last July in 55 towns of the
country simultaneously with the active participation of NDTV. Cynicism
was on the decline for once, and people began to feel that through the
use of RTI they could change things for the better.
However, this wave of hope has turned into despair due to the
functioning of the Central and State Information Commissions. They
were entrusted with the implementation of the RTI Act to bring about
transparency and accountability in government functioning, but in fact
they are making a mockery of the Act.

An analysis of the orders passed by the Central Information Commission
(CIC) revealed the following:

1. In 71 percent of the total appeals received by the Commission, the
CIC  'disposed of' appeals without calling the appellants. The CIC did
not adhere to the principles of natural justice, which requires
hearing the appellants to ensure that denial of information is in
accordance with the exemptions listed in the law. The Commissioners
have publicly stated that they do not need to hear people before
dismissing their cases.

2. The CIC has not imposed penalty in even a single case during the
first year on officials guilty of denial of information which amounts
to serious violations of the RTI Act. The RTI Act explicitly provides
for penalty in such cases. Out of the 1500 cases decided by the CIC so
far, penalty had been imposed in only two. One has already been
withdrawn and the other is in the process of being withdrawn. CIC had
issued show cause notices in 59 cases without result or penalty. With
nothing to fear, the government functionaries and public authorities
have increasingly begun to withhold information. Public Information
officers are taking advantage of this situation, and openly
challenging the right of the people to know.

3. The pendency of cases at the CIC is increasing day by day with the
CIC receiving on an average 2000 cases every month. Since penalty is
not being imposed as stipulated in the RTI Act, the number of appeals
is naturally on the rise. The CIC has displayed a lack of knowledge of
principles and procedures of justice. In a recently held public
hearing on the functioning of the CIC, the former Chief Election
Commissioner, Shri T.S. Krishnamurthy suggested that the CIC could do
with judicial training by a retired Judge.

4. Appeals on information about examination results, which affect the
future of the appellants have been dismissed with order after order,
on the dubious ground that transparency in examination system would
affect adversely the integrity of the examination system.

A long time after independence, we had seen a ray of hope for a
cleaner and better future. This hope would be shattered if an inquiry
were not held into the functioning of the CIC and things are allowed
to drift in the present direction.

Sir, your Vision 2020 of an India with eGovernance presupposes total
transparency and free availability of information through
inter-connectivity at all levels of the government. The direction that
the CIC is taking would never allow realization of this vision of
yours.

We appeal to you Sir to invoke section 14 of the RTI Act, which
provides the President with the power to institute an enquiry into the
functioning of the Central Information Commission. The CIC is meant to
be the protector of the RTI Act for the people of India. Left to the
CIC, the Act will be killed by its own custodians. We look up to you to
prevent that from happening. Let the ray of hope lighted by the RTI Act
survive and shine brighter on our democracy.

Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Sandeep Pandey
Smt. Madhu Bhaduri
Shri Manish Sisodia
Shri Rakesh Agarwal
Km. Santosh

Rs 56,000 for information under RTI

Rs 56,000 for information under RTI

Manish Pachouly & Dhaval Kulkarni

Mumbai, November 1, 2006

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1833687,0008.htm

Seeking information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act can be costly at times. Especially when you are asked to cough up as much as Rs 56,000 for some information, you would probably think again before using the Act.

Advocate Vinod Sampat, too, was shocked when he was asked by the Andheri Land Records office to pay an amount of Rs 56, 268 to get information on the structures located on collector’s land across the city.

Sampat had made an application on September 21 to inquire about it. He needed the accurate information to be part of the reference books he is writing on property matters. “I wanted information on such properties because buying properties situated on collector’s land costs an extra amount,” said Sampat.

“However, I was shocked to see the amount asked by the Andheri office,” he said. And the amount was asked only for information on the properties situated under the jurisdiction of Andheri office.

A shocked Sampat wrote to the Chief Information Commissioner Suresh Joshi, on Wednesday, asking him to ascertain the amount demanded from him. He also wrote to the Land Records Officer, Andheri, MT Ingle seeking a clarification on how the amount was arrived.

As per RTI rules, Rs 2 per page is demanded to provide information. “That means they were giving me 28,000 pages as information,” said an amused Sampat.

He said that if his queries were not answered, he would file an appeal with the appellate authority.

When contacted, Ingle said he had charged Sampat according to the rates specified by the state government and the revenue department.

Joshi said that in such cases, it is better for the applicants to ask for the inspection of the files so that they can pin-point the actual documents needed. They can also come in appeal to the commission, he said.

“The information officers can charge rates only as prescribed by the state government and in this case, it is found that the concerned officer is trying to willfully mislead the people, strict action will be taken,” he added.

However, Sampat said that the inspection point should have been mentioned in the letter, “instead of just frightening the applicant by demanding such an astronomical amount.”

“Do you believe that the Land Records office must have counted all the 28,000 pages?”

manish.pachouly@hindustantimes.com

AP: RTI: departments come under scanner

RTI: departments come under scanner

Special Correspondent

http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/01/stories/2006110108330300.htm

 

CORNERED: State Information Commissioner R. Dileep Reddy grilling an official for not displaying circulars relating to the Right to Information in the office, on Tuesday.

 

 

TIRUPATI : State Information Commissioner R. Dileep Reddy has expressed his displeasure over the lack of proper response from the various Government departments in enforcing the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

During his surprise visit to a dozen departments in the town on Tuesday, he could hardly conceal his dismay over the `indifferent attitude’ of the departments even in displaying related circulars on notice boards of their respective offices.

Warned

 

At one stage he reportedly warned the officials concerned that they could be fined up to Rs.25,000 each for not displaying the circulars duly highlighting the 17 items on which public could seek information from them under the RTI. According to officials who accompanied the Commissioner, the latter was particularly unhappy with the Commercial Taxes office, office of the Executive Engineer (Roads and Buildings) and the E.E (Irrigation).